I don't even really know what to think here. Like, who thinks this kind of censorship is acceptable? It's an action movie about slaves. They made action figures. You can buy the figures. Somehow, somebody thinks this is tantamount to buying slaves. Amazing. I haven't seen the movie, so I don't know what the tone is, but I assume it isn't pro-slavery, so I'd guess that selling action figures of slave characters doesnt have a pro-slavery agenda behind it. I mean, if I bought the Gail figure from Sin City, should I be arrested for engaging in prostitution? Knives, people! I'm ashamed to be an American sometimes.

I suppose you could cite the time Mattel said the only DC character they refused to make was Captain Nazi, but that makes a little more sense because, whether you want to or not, you sell a Nazi action figure, you're selling an agenda. If they changed his name to Capt. Wilhelm von Lippschitz or something, I guess you could slide it by, but he's still wearing a Nazi uniform. There is no "slave uniform". If the box said "slave boy who'll never get his freedom" instead of "Django" then I can see how it might be offensive, but (and again, haven't seen the movie yet) isn't Django the hero of the film?

I think the thing thats even more offensive is the figures that DO make it out when these are being shelved. Or removed from shelves, as it were. Kids see Walking Dead and Robot Chicken and blown up Terminator and Day of the Dead and twisted slutty s&m alice in wonderland figures in Toys R us and nobody says dick. You can slap gratuitous sex and rampant violence all over everything in this country, but gosh, don't do anything that might give Al Sharpton a reason to be on the goddam news!

Anyhow, I'm sure lots of people will disagree with me about this, or maybe not, but I just thought I'd mention it since no one else has.

I few people on another forum have been getting their Django figures pulled from ebay. They all got the follwing reply.

Quote:

DJANGO UNCHAINED 8" "DJANGO" ACTION FIGURE NECA

Unfortunately, we had to remove your listing because of the following:

Since the manufacturer of this product has discontinued the item’s sale due to its potentially offensive nature, we are not allowing it to be sold on eBay. We appreciate that you have chosen eBay to sell your items, however I must insist you don't relist this item.

what!? what racially offensive terms do the toys use? do they talk? i mean, i know whats all over the movie, but that "racially offensive term" is all over every tarantino movie, all of which have action figures and none other of which were actually set in a time period where using the word would make as much sense, as well as most everything you hear on any rap or hip hop station. so, is this a racist thing or a slavery thing?

_________________If it's as powerful as you say it is, it shouldn't need you to protect it from me.

Although I lean towards Lego, 'cause, ya know, Jabba's Palace has been around for almost 30 years!

I vote for this one- lets make lego apologize for something that Lucas did-- but Im biased-

-just because I really don't care for Tarantino's movies, and I think these figures look like crap and I figure there was really no market for them anyway, (like when you could find resevoir dog figures for 1.88 at suncoast clearances) and no one would have cared about them until Sharpton opened his big mouth. However dont get me wrong-- their reasoning is just as stupid..

_________________Fastest know derailer of threads in the know universe...expanded or otherwise.

So, I saw the movie last night and it was AWESOME. Tarantino's best movie since Pulp Fiction. It was a little controversial, yes, but at no point did it make slaving seem like an acceptable practice or glorify it in any way. Yes, it was racially charged, but that was what was going on in the south back then. Would I want to buy Django dolls? No. Is it ok to say that no one else can? No. Especially since they're not aimed at kids in the first place. It's not like they made a 3 3/4 plastic slavemaster action figure with whipping action and django that when you run him under cold water whip marks show up on his back. It's not like any of them are wearing klan sheets. They're just dolls that don't do anything, aimed at adult collectors. Don't want to buy em? Dont buy em. But boycotting them is bullshit, especially when there is way more gratuitous and offensive stuff out there sitting on the shelves at toys r us right next to the family guy and gremlins figures.

_________________If it's as powerful as you say it is, it shouldn't need you to protect it from me.

I have been going back and forth on whether to respond to this thread for a couple of days now. Do I think pulling the toys is an overreaction? Yes. Do they personally offend me? No. But do I think I have ANY right whatsoever to tell ANY black person how to feel about slavery and what is and isn't offensive? HELL NO!

I think a lot of the backlash to the movie is misguided, personally. A mainstream revenge thriller focusing on the injustice of slavery is unprecendently and frankly, I think it sends a good message (that slavery IS something that is worth getting angry about and that Django is JUSTIFIED in taking revenge against the white people in the movie). But just because I don't agree with Al Sharpton or Spike Lee about the movie doesn't mean that what they think is any less valid than what I do. And if the toys truly WEREN'T offensive to anybody else, the toy company wouldn't have pulled them. They obviously agreed with Sharpton, even if I don't. That says everything to me.

First off, no one is trying to tell all black people how they should feel about slavery, but everyone has absolutely every right to tell any one why they shouldnt be offended by something. This country suffers from not allowing people to have candid discourse about things because it's deemed by socitey as politically incorrect. A society, mind you, that was founded by people who stole land from one group of people and forced another group of people to build houses on it for free. Yeah, wonder why those people would want to discourage people from openly dicussing things like slavery. Eyes rolling emoticon. It's like how it is said that the two things people shouldnt discuss in public are religion and politics. Seems like the only people that have anything to lose by people openly discussing those two things are policiticans and religious leaders. Guess that's why they still have all the money in this great country where freedom of speech is protected by the constitution that hardly any of the citizens of this country have ever actually even read. For sure, boycotting django unchained toys because a small handful of people are offended by them is definitely exactly what this country needs. You know what? Geordi La Forge is played by Lavarr Burton who was Kunta in Roots. We should boycott Star Trek toys now, too. Buying Star Trek toys is like buying slaves.

_________________If it's as powerful as you say it is, it shouldn't need you to protect it from me.